Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive visitors automatically to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is add new content on a consistent basis to automatically begin bringing web traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section of the series, we look at the configuration phase of this process. You will understand why an expertly configured WordPress site is different from a professionally configured one. You will also discover just what type of work needs to be done to ensure that when everything is set up and fully configured, visitors will automatically start flowing simply by posting web content on a consistent basis to your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive worldwide and are researching any advantage available to improve their performance online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous competitive advantage. For businesses, having an expertly configured website means having a significant competitive advantage from the very beginning.
The Difference Is In The Way Your Site Is Configured
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to understand the key difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this point here is a joke.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All is humming along in the gizmo assembly factory when suddenly, everything stops.
No one can figure out what’s wrong and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert walks immediately towards the control box. After staring at the electronic components for about 2 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a tiny hammer from his utility belt and makes a single tap about 1 inch from the left side of the box.
Immediately, the machinery starts working again.
The manager is grateful and relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager receives a request of payment for services for $5,000.
Feeling furious, the manager rings the expert. Demanding to know why the expert has charged them such a large amount of money for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive web traffic consistently to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production stopped working and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for years spent acquiring the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately fix a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress site set up so all you have to do is publish content to it and search engines, social sites and dozens of other web properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
Although many experts often make complex solutions look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to figure things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than just installing a website and configuring a few internal settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which services you need to set up and activate to get certain outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured in order to make sure things work exactly as you have envisioned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite complicated. This is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking on a button or two, or configuring some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration stage is a process that involves your web server, your website, and various third-party sites …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a better look at these steps.
Your Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your web hosting account specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your business may attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like integrating server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been checked and configured, the next step is to configure a number of external sites and services.
Configuring External Sites
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all content will get posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will be automatically distributed to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external services have been added to your traffic network, content linking back to your website gets automatically fed to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your business will be given exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some third-party web properties and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress settings to help speed up the configuration process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of useful information, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site data with Google, you can use this information to integrate and automate traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data are set up, tracking data can be integrated with WordPress using a simple Google Analytics plugin used with other applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account and site data with Bing have been set up, your account details can be used to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers both a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you are planning to build a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your social media accounts in order to configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and drive new traffic to your site.
You should have pages set up with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up and post your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just select those that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools.
(There are lots of social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add an RSS feed from your WordPress site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your account.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
The WordPress administration area contains a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically …
(WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading
This section affects how visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence web traffic. For example, your choice to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your site to view the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to automatically notify all the update services you have specified in the Update Services box when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although the settings in this section are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites linked to from your content, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks Screen)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your post permalinks …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
If you need help setting up WP permalinks, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can improve traffic generation
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you cannot ignore.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugin)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to find, crawl and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with their social networks can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website using free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to select which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring design and layout aspects of your website, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) allow you to configure settings for better traffic results)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic System Configuration – Other Don’t Forget These
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the things that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you do business online, you need to ensure that your site is found to comply with all government regulations.
(Is Your Site Legally Compliant?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Categories And Tags
Post tags and categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your pages.
(WordPress post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be set up during the Website Planning Phase.
When considering ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that lists all of your site’s posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find your website content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Only search engines can interpret an XML sitemap. Although Google can index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Your Site’s 404 Page Not Found
When online visitors type in the wrong URL or click on an invalid hyperlink, they are presented with an error page (known as a 404 Not Found page) …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 Not Found error page can redirect confused visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up on your server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then have to do to automatically begin attracting new traffic is add content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many web developers months to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is addressed in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help small business owners learn how to grow their business online and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress website and proven marketing strategies that are easy and quick to implement.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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